Month: January 2024

I had visions of hunkering down at home on our stormy weekend and sewing and cooking. That plan was shuttled when our winter storm caused my power to go out around 9 am on Saturday. At 11 am two trees came down across the street amid frightening wind gusts… one landing on my neighbor’s house and the other resting on the power lines.

Lucky for my neighbor, the one on the house is on the garage and not living space.

I’m so lucky to have a friend one street over who never lost power and invited me over when my power hadn’t come back on by Saturday afternoon and the temp in my house was dropping fast. The temps all weekend, and still as I type, have been well below freezing. Not a great time to be without power.

So I bundled up the dogs and some supplies and headed over. I was so worried that my dogs would be badly behaved, but they were soooo good. They loved hanging out with my friend’s 11 month old corgi puppy. She kept them active. That and my twice daily walks to check out what was happening in my very quiet and cold neighborhood wore them out!

Long story short, it’s now Tuesday night at about 10 pm and I’ve only been home for a couple hours. 82 hours without power! And all in well below freezing temps.

It’s been a very stressful weekend. There is so much damage all around the Portland area from downed trees. Four days later, over 30,000 homes are still without power. There were over 150,000 homes without power at the worst of it. I’m sure some people will wait for days to get their power back.

So, needless to say, I didn’t get any of my cooking done this weekend. In fact, I had to toss out the chicken I planned to cook. And I didn’t get any sewing done at all. It was so frustrating to have all that time on my hands and not be able to be productive — and have something to occupy my anxious mind.

You can find lots of pictures and videos of the aftermath of our terrible weather event on the internet. But here are a few from my immediate neighborhood.

This one shows a street a block away from me that was completely blocked by some big trees.

Someone had chainsawed a path through the trees by the time I walked by.

This is another street where a row of trees came down and took out about 80 feet of power lines.

The tree company cleared these trees out yesterday and the power company was working on this street this morning. This is a street that dead ends into the park near me so these people were completely stuck for days! A UPS driver even got stuck there while making deliveries!

As I was walking my boys yesterday afternoon I saw the Asplundh truck (tree removal experts) heading up the road. It’s a wonderful site when there are trees down all over the place!

I stopped and watched as they turned onto my road. After three days it was so good so see some help arrive!

As I got further into my walk I took a loop past my house and saw that there were several power company vehicles on the street. So I walked up there and said to all the power workers, “I don’t know you very well, but I love you!” They all laughed.

I asked them if they were going to be able to restore my power soon and they said they were having a conference about it. They asked me how long I had been without power. It was three days by that time.

Long story short… the answer was, apparently, no. They went down the street and worked on some other issues while the tree was removed. There were a lot of people still needing their help.

It didn’t take long for them to have that tree removed from the power line. But I would have to wait to see the restoration of my power.

My friend’s husband and I took a drive around the neighborhood last night to see how it was looking. It was nice to see more and more streets and neighborhoods with power. But there were still lots of very dark neighborhoods near us.

My friends’ house where I stayed all weekend is on the street next to me… basically right behind the house with the tree resting on the roof. As we were doing dinner dishes tonight my friend noticed that there were lights on my street! So she told me to hightail it over to my house to check to see if I had power.

We have another storm tonight… this one featuring freezing rain! When I got outside I saw that my car was completely covered with ice. It would have taken 20 minutes to clear the windshield. So I walked gingerly to my house.

You can see the sheen of ice all over my front sidewalk and on the snow. I had even put ice melt on this sidewalk this afternoon! So slick!

It was so wonderful to see the lights on when I got home!!!

And when I got inside the temperature was already up to 50 degrees! It was 35 degrees when I was here earlier today.

I walked back to my friend’s house and packed up my boys and all my stuff. My friend’s husband cleared the ice off my car, and I was on my way.

Luckily, our freezing rain storm that was predicted for tonight has fizzled a little in my area. There is a solid sheet of ice everywhere, but predicted winds haven’t materialized. I was not looking forward to more trees coming down! Other areas in Portland are seeing a little more wind tonight.

I’ve been pretty worried about my pipes freezing. The high temps since Saturday have been in the low 20s. I did leave all my faucets running the entire time I was gone and checked every day to make sure they were still running. I’m pretty relieved that my pipes are all intact and flowing tonight.

The temps will start to go up tomorrow and melt all the ice. Then it will be up in the 50s before the weekend is over. It’s going to be really wonderful to hear the rain on the roof!

Tonight I’m so incredibly appreciative of friends who generously welcomed me into their home and took excellent care of me and my boys. I’m so very lucky and blessed.

I took the dogs for a walk today at about 4:30 or so. I bundled up in a warm coat, a knit hat, a fleece neck gator and gloves.

The boys were almost naked. They sported only their lighted collars and leashes. They were not phased by the cold.

It was a little below 30 degrees at that time but the stiff breeze made it nice and brisk. We had a nice walk of over two miles and it was nice to not have to deal with rain.

Our storm is coming, but they have decided that we won’t get as much snow as they initially thought. The forecast is calling for 1-4 inches starting Saturday morning. The bigger issue will be wind which brings down tree branches which causes power outages. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we keep power. It looks like the wind will be worse closer to the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge… which is on the waaaaay opposite of Portland from me. It’s supposed to get pretty cold tonight. Well into the teens. I already have all my faucets dripping water to keep my pipes from freezing. In my six decades of living, I’ve never had frozen pipes. Fingers crossed for this adventure.

I had to go into the office this afternoon to pick up a few things. I noticed that they had salted the roads. You can see the stripes on the road from the salt water slurry.

This is a fairly new thing here. I bet they haven’t been salting the roads for more than a few years.

One thing that will make this more challenging is that they don’t clear roads around here. We just have to wait for it all to melt. Our temps are not going to get above freezing until Wednesday. So the next few days may be prime for staying home. It’s common for the roads to be very slick for days after a snow storm.

I did spend a little bit of time in my sewing room tonight. I sorted out all my Fresh Start blocks and got the sashing colors nicely distributed in the pile. Then they all went back up on the design wall and I tweaked a few things.

It looks pretty good to me. I will take a last look at it tomorrow and then I’ll start sewing it all together. with the weather tomorrow, It should be pretty easy to get this all sewn together in one day.

I received the package of fabrics I ordered mid day today. These are fabrics I need for the quilt my friend and I will make when she visits next month.

I have a couple things I want to do before I start cutting into these fabrics. It’s a good thing too because they sent one of the fabrics I ordered in the wrong color way. This color way is magenta and I ordered red.

The one I need has a lovely black background and red flowers. It’s already on it’s way to me. I took advantage of the situation and ordered a piece of the fabric used for the cornerstones to be shipped in the same package. I wasn’t going to add the cornerstones and then someone commented that they probably show up more in person then they do in the book. So I switched plans and will include the cornerstones. I have a really good method I use to make sashing with cornerstones. I’ve written about it before, but I’ll share again when I get into constructing this quilt.

Some of these fabrics are really wonderful. I just love this one called Carpet Cookies.

GAH! Talk about eye candy!

Looking forward to a weekend of warm comfort food and getting a lot done.

I haven’t done any sewing for two evenings. I was tired last night. I didn’t feel well yesterday and was worn out by the time the evening rolled around. I have been staying up waaaaay too late this week. My body is telling me to knock it the hell off!

I did take my boys for a nice long 2.5 mile walk yesterday. We had a break in the rain, my foot felt really good, and we kept going!

We had a quick walk tonight, but just 1.5 miles because I had to go to the grocery store. We’re expecting what could be significant snow starting tomorrow afternoon and when snow is coming, you have to shop for food!

They’re predicting anywhere from 1-8 inches of snow in Portland. So I needed a few basic things in anticipation of being stuck in the house the entire long weekend. I also wanted to fill up my car with gas because it’s good to have a full tank when the weather goes nuts.

We don’t handle snow well here.

The good news is that they’re only predicting a chance of freezing rain. That stuff is way too scary. I’m happy to just be expecting snow. But it’s going to be cold for a few days. The high on Saturday is supposed to be around 20 degrees. YIKES!

They have already announced that schools will be closing early tomorrow. You do NOT want to be out and about in Portland when a winter storm hits. You could end up spending the night in your car.

So I’ve been thinking it will be a good weekend for some warm comfort food. I have a chicken in my freezer, so I’m going to roast a chicken on Saturday. I bought some potatoes, onions, mushrooms and carrots to roast with it. That will be a lovely, warm and comforting meal. Plus… leftovers. I love a roasted chicken. It’s really easy and really good. I hardly ever think to make them.

I also saw the tortillas in the store and remembered that I have a bunch of chili verde in my freezer. So I grabbed a bag and pulled some chili verde out of the freezer when I got home. More warm and comforting yumminess for the weekend.

I did hit my sewing room when I got home but I didn’t do much. I wanted to pull all my Fresh Start blocks off the design wall because I want to sort them by the color of the sashing strips, distribute those colors nicely through the piles, and then get them back up on the design wall before the final tweaking.

While I was pulling them all off the wall I thought I’d take a look at a couple options with these blocks to see what I thought.

I’m not considering changing how I put these blocks together, I just wanted to see if either of these layouts sparked an idea. I really like the one with all the black. If I was to do this, I would want to use a black that had a more graphic design to it. Maybe a large floral. but it would still have to read black. I might make the center strips wider, or the sashing wider with the corner triangles smaller. It’s an idea.

I don’t like the option with the white jumble.

Right now my blocks are sitting in two piles on my cutting table. I’ll start playing with them tomorrow after work.

If I get completely stuck at home I may have this top sewn together on Saturday. If I get stuck at home ALL weekend (Monday is a holiday) I may get a lot more than that done!

A couple of people asked me about the pattern for my current sofa quilt. It’s a free pattern that I picked up at one of my local quilt stores a number of years ago. It’s pretty simple.

The pattern references a kit, but they gave away the pattern for free in the store. I made two quits on this pattern — one is the throw on my sofa. The other was a queen size quilt for a friend to celebrate her divorce.. It’s a great beginner quilt.

As I was looking in my pattern bin for the Sprinkles pattern I ran across a lot of patterns that I’ve never made. Some of them make me wonder why I ever bought them. I will certainly never make some of them.

There were a few that I want to make. . . some day.

I’ve always loved this elephant pattern. I think it would be really cool made out of Australian Aboriginal fabrics. I would probably make this a wall hanging rather than a full size quilt.

This zig zag quilt uses the Straight Out of Line ruler my friend gave me for Christmas. I’ve had this pattern for many years. I have a few ideas in my head for this pattern.

I bought this next one a couple of years ago. I thought it looked like a fun and quick make. I’ll probably make it some day.

And the last thing that caught my eye was this…

I have no idea where I got this! I know that I didn’t buy it. But I can see that it might come in handy. Maybe some nice winter coats are in Rico’s and Bender’s future!

One more day of work then it’s time to hunker down and stay warm! Too bad my boys aren’t cuddlers!

We got a break in the rain this afternoon so at about 4:00 I headed out with the dogs before it got wet again. I’m so happy that my foot felt great and we walked 2.5 miles in a faster pace than I’ve done in many months! It feels so good to be out there moving around again. Bender and Rico agree.

It’s been raining most of the day. At moments it’s rained hard. Earlier this evening it was raining so hard I could hear it hitting the roof. And so could Rico. He was concerned about the sound. Bender was not concerned.

Rico is so sensitive. Dogs who are very aware of sounds can tend to get even more sensitive as they get older. That worries me for poor Rico. At least it’s not fireworks.

The rest of the day was spent pretty much just like this.

Really rainy days mean lots of dog naps.

We’re expecting snow here over night. Some areas are already seeing some accumulation. Snow is not a regular occurrence here and it’s always a big deal when a storm approaches. We just aren’t very good at handling snow. I just watched the weather and they’re saying we may get some freezing rain on Saturday. I really hate freezing rain. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for just snow instead.

I did hit my sewing room tonight to finish up the pile of Fresh Start blocks I was working on last night. And I did it. It’s a wrap! Seventeen more blocks are done… sewn… trimmed… pressed… squared up. (I’m dropping the link to my tutorial for these blocks here because I know someone will ask!)

I tossed enough of those 17 blocks up on the design wall to make a quilt top that is approximately 63×72 when it’s done. That’s 7 blocks wide and 8 blocks high. That’s a pretty much perfect throw size quilt in my mind. Here’s all 56 blocks up on my design wall.

They are basically up there in the order that I made them. I need to spend a little bit of time moving things around before I make it final and start sewing it together.

And I made a decision. I’m going to live with the asymmetrical nature of this quilt. I’ve made this decision based on a couple of things. #1. I don’t want this quilt to be any bigger. If I increase the width by one row, it will be a square quilt. I don’t like square quilts unless they are going to be used on a bed and I’m not going to make this into a queen size quilt. I’m just not. #2. No one but a quilter would probably ever even notice that this top isn’t symmetrical. It’s unlikely someone will end up hanging this on their wall. And if it’s not displayed like that, it will rarely be viewed as it sits on my design wall.

Decision made! I will live comfortably with asymmetry!

I’m happy to have these blocks done. I found myself tonight thinking I could take a short cut or two to save time. That’s a pretty good indication that I’m just about done making these blocks!

Since we are getting some exciting weather and my company is not coming, I will get this top done before the weekend is over. Maybe even before the weekend starts!

I ended up with seven more blocks than I need. I will probably incorporate these into the back of the quilt in some way. I already have an idea.

I have a couple blocks that I screwed up in my desire to work faster this evening… the sashing strips aren’t long enough to allow me to square them up at the right size. I decided to go with strips that weren’t quite as long as I had been cutting my strips, and I paid the price! So I will probably square these up smaller and incorporate them into a bag at some point in time.

Maybe a Frankenbag will be my next little palate cleanser!

I really do wish you could see this quilt in person. It’s so much prettier when it’s right in front of you. I’ll try to get some really good photos of the finished flimsy this weekend.

Here’s some eye candy!

I just love all the detail and color in those bright fabrics!

And one more because, well, just because.

Since my friend will be coming in about a month and we’ll be trying to make two quilts while she’s here, I have a goal to finish up a thing or two before she arrives.

1. I want to finish this top and get the back made. Then I’ll fold it up and put it in my closet and save it for a future trip to the long armer quilter.
2. I want to finish my Aboriginal Libby quilt. This one…

All the corners are made. I still need to trim them up and sew a stabilizing line of stitching across all those bias edges. Then sew the corners onto the center of the quilt. It’s probably only a couple hours of work. I just really don’t want to do it! My friend gave me the backing for this quilt as a holiday gift so I should get the backing made while I’m at it.

I’ve decided I’m going to use this Aboriginal quilt in my living room. It will look great in my room. The quilt I’m using now is a good number of years old. I might fold this old one up and keep it in my car. It’s a good idea to have a car quilt. You never know when a picnic might break out.

I made that very early on in my quilting career. It’s a very simple pattern made from batik fabrics that I collected over time. It’s gotten a lot of use over the years. I’m sitting under it as I type.

I can just picture that vibrant Aboriginal quilt on the back of my sofa… and on top of me!

I actually have to go into the office tomorrow morning for a long meeting. It will be interesting to see what the roads look like in the morning.

I didn’t do a ton of sewing tonight. I played pickleball after work then hightailed it home to get dinner for me and my boys. I had planned on spending some time in my sewing room but spent way too much time on the phone with my brother, my friend, and my pickleball coach.

My brother and his wife were supposed to come for a visit this weekend, but we have snow in the forecast so we decided to cancel that visit and plan a visit in the next month or so.

My friend who is coming to visit in February called to make sure her plan for flight arrivals and departures will work with my schedule. So it looks like we’re good to go. More on this visit later in this blog post.

You would laugh if you knew how much time I spend messaging back and forth with my pickleball coach about pickleball. He is every bit as obsessed as I am! There are evenings when we message each other over the span of an hour or more. That’s not unusual at all. We don’t typically speak outside of our lessons, but occasionally, when there is something too complicated or involved to explain via text that requires a call we do actually talk.

So I didn’t end up with much time to spend sewing tonight.

I did get all the sashing pieces sewn to the 17 blocks I started making last night and I got them pressed and trimmed.

I just love looking at all the details of these blocks as I handle them. That red circular fabric in the center of this one is so good!

Then I cut the additional black and white squares I’ll need to finish these blocks.

I felt too tired to sew all those triangles onto those strips but felt like I wanted to do a little sewing. So I pulled out a small pile of scraps and sewed up some crumb pieces.

I really should spend an hour every week on crumb piecing. I have piles and piles of smaller scraps that are perfect for crumb piecing. Letting them pile up makes them all a little overwhelming. I can always find a use for crumb blocks!

So, about my friend’s visit next month. When she visits we usually make a quilt top so we’ve been planning what we’re going to make. We might be nuts but we think we can actually get two quilts done while she’s here for ten days.

My friend wants to make an Aboriginal quilt like the one I gifted to my brother and his wife.

She will make this from fabrics in her stash and she’ll get all the squares cut before she arrives. We’ll make the sashing and cornerstones after she arrives because I want to show her how I make them in a really efficient way. We should be able to crack this one out pretty quickly.

And the quilt we’ll make for me is from Kaffe Fassett’s new book, Quilts by the Sea. There are a LOT of quilts in this book that I love. It’s my favorite of Kaffe’s last few books. This quilt is called Flower Boxes.

I loved this quilt the minute I saw it. The dark tones. The bright flowers. And that plaid sashing just kills me!

I’ve purchased a few fabrics for this quilt over the last few months when I saw them but still didn’t have everything I need. So I got online last week and ordered what I don’t have. This pattern is for a queen size quilt, but I’ll make it a throw size. In addition to that change I’ll also forgo the cornerstones. Um, yes… there ARE cornerstones in that quilt. And if I can’t see them, there’ s not much reason to add them!

It’s basically the Jewel Frames quilt pattern set on point. This is my Jewel Frames quilt top.

Amazing how setting blocks on point completely changes a design!

Oh, and above my bed in that photo is the portrait of Forrest that my bother has built a wooden frame for. It really needs a frame.

While I was ordering fabric and paying for shipping, I took a look at the KFC sale fabrics and found one I like for the backing for the quilt I’m working on right now. So I ordered a few yards of this one while I was at it.

I like that it has all the bright colors, but what I really like is that is has the black and white bits throughout the design. That made it really work for me with all the colors an graphic black and white fabrics in my new quilt top.

I’ll close tonight with this… several people have asked me what the gizmo on the from of my sewing machine is.

This is a little rechargeable LED light that I bought a few months ago. The seller where I bought it doesn’t carry this any more. But you can find lots of little LED lights like this online. It has a very bendable arm with the LED light on the end of it and you can adjust the light to just about any position and place you need light. I always need more light when I’m sewing! The unit slips into a little sleeve that is stuck to the front of my machine with velcro.

It’s really raining hard here tonight. We’ve got a very wet few days coming and the threats of snow later this week. They really aren’t sure yet how bad the storm will be. We need the water but I’m hoping things stay calm. Portland doesn’t handle snow well! Three inches can shut us down for days!

People are already starting to panic!

I got a good deal done on my Fresh Start quilt this weekend. Of course, I finished and published my tutorial for this block yesterday. You can find it here, if you missed it.

Thanks to everyone who let me know that it appears to be thorough and clearly written. I did put a little bit of time into editing it. And I’m a visual person so it’s important to include photos.

I was supposed to play pickleball at 8:30 yesterday morning but it got canceled because of rain. Then I found out that I didn’t have a sheep herding lesson either. So I found myself up, showered and ready to go at 8 am on a Saturday… which never happens. So I had a lot of time to be productive.

After I got my tutorial posted I took my boys out for a nice 2.5 mile walk. I’m so happy my foot is feeling so much better that we can get back to walking.

When I got home I finished all the blocks that I started the night before. So, that was an additional 14 bocks.

So that’s a total of 46 blocks done. If I end up making this 7 blocks by 9 blocks that’s a total of 72 blocks. That means I only need 26 more blocks.

So after I played pickleball this afternoon and after my dinner, I dug in and made five strip sets.

I had put together the strips for each set last night so I sewed these up really quickly.

They they got pressed.

Then I got them all cut into strips for the blocks and ended up with 19 pieces.

Before I quit for the night I paired up 17 of the strips with sashing fabric so they will be all ready for me to sew tomorrow night.

I still haven’t decided how big this quilt will be. I have to wait to see how it looks once I get it up to 7 blocks by 9 blocks to see if I’m happy with it or if I have to keep going. It’s going to be about the symmetry of the quilt top. Odd number blocks mess with the symmetry. And to do fewer blocks to get symmetry the quilt would be too small. I like a throw quilt that covers your shoulders and your feet comfortably. I don’t like to have to choose which one to cover.

I met a couple of friends for breakfast this morning. We haven’t gotten together for months. It was good to get out in public and see people. We sat at the table talking for almost three hours!

It’s going to get cold later this week. They’re even predicting that we might get some snow. And that means that my brothers visit might have to be postponed. But the forecast is different every time I look at it so I’m not going to worry about it now.

Back to work tomorrow. Next Monday is a holiday so I have another short work week coming up.

This block design has been around for ages and there are a lot of different tutorials for this on the web. I’m providing this tutorial to show how I make my personal take on it. I did not invent this block. 

I was inspired to make this quilt a few months ago when I made small versions of this block for pin cushions and four of them ended up together on my cutting table… and an idea was born!

Please feel free to use this tutorial and share it with your quilting friends. All I ask is that you give me credit when posting about it on social media or in other mass communications. 

My blocks measure 9.5 inches and will finish at 9 inches

There are three elements to each block. 

   Block center – made from scrap strips

  Sashing strips — made from prints that read as solids.

  Corner triangles — I used black and white fabrics. Half the blocks have white corners, half have black corners.

Selecting Fabrics

Center strips. Scrap strips of varying width (1.5 inches to 2.5 inches) and varying lengths (at least the width of the finished strip you want.)  My center strips are cut to 3.5 inches wide. I used Kaffe Fassett Collective and Australian Aboriginal fabric scraps. I press and organize my scraps before sitting down to sew. 

Sashing for center strips: Fabric prints that read as solids. They have pattern, but from a distance read as a solid. If I have enough duplicate pieces in my scrap bin, I’ll use scraps. But for most of these blocks I cut the sashing fabrics from yardage. 

Here’s some of the fabrics I’m using.

Corners for blocks: The black fabric I used is an Australian Aboriginal design from M&S Textiles called Land of Utopia. The “white” fabric is Brandon Mably’s jumble in white, a Kaffe Fassett Collective fabric.

You can use any black and white fabrics you want for the corners. You could use solid colors for the corner triangles, or all different colors of polka dots, or a selection of different black and white prints for variety.

For the strips and sashing, you can select scraps that are more color coordinated, like one block could be all green scraps, and another could be all red scraps, etc… You could use a common fabric for the strips along the center piece… maybe a black and white stripe, or a common color or common print for all the blocks. 

Making the Center of the block

I make my centers by sewing strip sets that I can cut multiple block centers from. You could certainly make them one at a time if you want to use up your smaller scraps. My strips vary in length… anywhere from 12 inches to 20 inches or so.

Decide how wide you want your center of your block to be. Mine are 3.5 inches. I would love to see this made with wider center sections. 5 inches? 6 inches? 

Calculate how long the center needs to be… measure the diagonal of the square and add one inch. I make mine around 15 inches long for my 9.5 inch block. 

 Better to have a little more than you need, rather than your strip set being too short.

I pair up three or four sets of scrap strips before I sit down to sew. I select a variety of colors for each strip set and try not to put like colors next to each other. The width of the strips varies and I select enough strips to add up to approximately 15 inches tall. I can always add more if I don’t have enough.  

Then I sew the multiple strip sets before I get up to press them.

Once I have three or for strip sets sewn I press them all at the same time, square up one edge of each strip set, then cut them to my 3.5 inches in width starting with that squared edge. 

Whatever is left over at the end is tossed into my crumb scrap basket. 

Adding sashing to center of block

My sashing strips are cut 1-3/4 inches wide and 11 inches long. Calculate how long your strips need to be based on your block size.

Place your square ruler on top of your center strip with the strip centered between two corners. Measure the line where the side of the ruler intersects with the edges of the center section. 

For my 9.5 inch blocks this measures around 9 inches. I cut my sashing strips to 11 inches long. Basically, I add about two inches to my measurement so I have some leeway when squaring up my blocks. I only have to calculate this once. There’s no need to do it with each block.

I’ve been using strips cut from yardage, or scraps if I have duplicates that are wide enough. If you’re making a different size block, you can calculate using the same method. Just measure using your block size. 

Lay your sashing strips along either edge of the center piece, centering it as best you can. I just make sure that the ends of the sashing strips are each the same distance away from the ends of the center piece. 

I lay both strips on at the same time and then sew both seams.

Sew a 1/4 inch seam along each edge, then press the seam allowance toward the sashing. 

Trim the sashing pieces to 1 inch wide 

Here’s the center piece with both sashing pieces trimmed to 1 inch.

I trim my sashing to 1 inch rather than cut it to that size initially because I get a more precise piece to sew the triangles to. This is a step you could skip if you feel your piecing is precise enough. Mine is not!

Adding Corner Triangles

Calculate the size of square you need to cut into two triangles. For my 9.5 inch block this measures about 6 inches. I cut my squares 7.5 inches. This gives me enough room to square up my blocks with about 1/4 inch to spare all the way around the block. 

Since these squares will be cut in half along the diagonal, thus exposing a bias edge, I press my squares using Best Press to help keep them from stretching as I work with them. You could use starch or other spray stabilizers that you prefer. You don’t have to use stabilizer.

Cut your squares in half along the diagonal. 

Mark the center of each side of the sashing on your center strip by folding it in half and finger pressing the crease. Do the same for the two triangles for this block.

Line up two pieces and pin them together. Do this to both sides. The diagonal cut for these corners is on the bias, so be very careful handling these triangles so you don’t stretch that edge. 

When you pin the triangles to the sashing pieces the triangles will overlap each other so you want to make sure you fold the corner of the first one down before pinning the second one on. I fold it down and gently finger press, then pin the second triangle in place. Pinning helps you prevent stretching that bias edge.

Sew these pieces together, then press with the seam allowance toward the corner triangles. 

Squaring up your blocks

I’m using a 9.5 inch square ruler to square up my blocks. You just want to make sure that you keep the corners of the square ruler lined up with the center of the strip. You can use a pen to mark the center of the end of each strip so you have a visual marker. I’ve had good luck just eye balling it to keep it centered.

I remove a little more than 1/4 inch of excess fabric all the way around the block. This is acceptable waste for me. I like having a little bit of room when I square up. 

There are lots of videos on YouTube on how to square up quilt blocks so I won’t explain that here.

It’s not a bad idea to make one block to make sure all your measurements and calculations work. I did that and made several adjustments to subsequent blocks to make construction and trimming more efficient.

Now make 90 more blocks!!!

I did hit my sewing room this evening but with the specific purpose of shooting photos for the tutorial for my New Year Fresh Start blocks. I wrote most of the text last night, but it still needs a LOT of editing.

So I grabbed my computer and headed down the hall. I had made notes in my tutorial document about the specific photos I needed to shoot to illustrate parts of the tutorial.

I made a strip set that gave me four block centers.

But I only made one of them into a block, taking a lot of photos along the way.

I’m hoping to have the tutorial done and posted some time this weekend. I can do that if I don’t spend too much time editing the text!

I scheduled some vacation time today. My friend will be visiting for ten days in February if we can make the dates work. This is my friend who I make quilts with when she visits. I’m really looking forward to some time off and am looking forward to seeing my friend. I guess we need to decide what quilt we’re going to make while she’s here!

My brother and his wife are also planning to visit next weekend. They will be gifted my sunburst quarter log cabin quilt while they’re here.

And my brother made me a wooden picture frame for a canvas print of a photo of my Forrest. It’s going to be cold next weekend and it’s possible that we see some snow. I’m hoping the snow stays away.

We had a visit from Ernie yesterday. His owner dropped him off to spend the day with us as she headed off to work.

He’s such an easy dog to have around. He snoozed a good part of the day, played and hung out with my boys, and sat on my lap for a couple zoom meetings for work. We did get a walk in during the afternoon when the rain stopped.

We’ve had such a mild winter here in Portland. There are still roses blooming around the neighborhood.

The winter Camelias are blooming and there are daisy type flowers here and there.

There is also candy tuft blooming. It’s one of the first plants to bloom in the spring. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it bloom in January. That’s crazy early!

The mountains are supposed to get a lot of snow this weekend and that’s good news.

My new dishwasher was installed this morning. One guy came alone and he had the old dishwasher out and the new one installed within about an hour. I was pretty impressed. He ran it before he left and it was so quiet I couldn’t hear it from across the room. It looks and feels high quality.

Isn’t it beautiful?!?! And I’m hoping it will last me for at least ten years. I’m going to dirty a lot of dishes tomorrow so I can run it!

It feels really good to have that taken care of.

I’m playing pickleball early tomorrow, followed by Rico’s weekly sheep herding lesson. Then I plan on doing some house keeping to prepare for my brother’s visit next week, and I will make more blocks on my current quilt.

I’m meeting some friend for breakfast Sunday morning and will play pickleball in the afternoon. I haven’t played pickleball since last Sunday.

Since I did all the heavy lifting on the next 16 Fresh Start blocks last night, It didn’t take long tonight to finish them up tonight.

And now I have 32 blocks up on my design wall and I’m loving this more and more.

I really wish you could see this in person. The photos really don’t do it justice. I keep finding myself just standing there staring at it!

I’ve been wondering how big I want to make this quilt. I was concerned that I needed to have an even number of blocks across the width of the quilt so that the edges would be symmetrical. What I mean is that I thought it might look better if the left side and right side of one row of the quilt are the same — either an X or an O.

The arrangement above is an odd number of blocks across the width. See how the left side starts with an X and the right side ends with an O?

I don’t think it needs that extra block. I think the quilt is busy enough that you won’t even see that the ends of the rows are different.

I haven’t made a final decision and it will be interesting to see how this looks with more blocks. I’ve been thinking I might make it 7 blocks wide by 8 blocks high. That would make it finish at 63 inches by 72, which is a pretty good size for a throw quilt.

The first thing I had to do this evening to finish these blocks was to cut the fabric for the corners. I cut all of that black fabric that I have left. I’m going to have to buy more! I’m going to call the store where I bought it tomorrow and see if they still have some. I still have plenty of the jumble. I use a LOT of the jumble so always have at least a couple yards in my stash.

I got the squares cut… more than I needed, actually. Then got all the triangles pinned onto the finished center pieces… 8 with black corners, 8 with jumble.

I had exactly the number of pins I needed for these 16 blocks! Three pins per triangle… one triangle left to pin!

Then I sewed them all with the chain piecing method. It went really fast. Then I was on to pressing and squaring up.

I was done with this pretty early. So I got me and my boys all bundled up, lit, and sufficiently covered in reflective materials and we headed out for our evening walk at about 7:30. It was really nice out and we saw lots of people and dogs who were all dressed like us! We had a nice two-mile walk. I decided to give myself the rest of the night off from sewing.

I managed to purchase a new dishwasher today and I did the entire transaction via text. I wonder if people actually go into stores any more to purchase appliances. Well, at least dishwashers. They have literally hundreds of dishwashers available on their website and they all essentially LOOK the same. I can’t imagine that they have more than 15 or so in their store and you can easily read about the features of each one. I bought from a local chain of stores. I didn’t love the idea of using one of the big box stores. I’m not terribly impressed with their customer service.

I selected a Bosch. Everything I hear about them is excellent. I got the one I wanted on sale and upgraded to a stainless steel interior. It was going to take 2-3 weeks to get one ordered, but the rep said that someone else had ordered the exact same item and the store was holding it for them. She asked them if they would let me have that one and order another one for them, and they agreed. So I will have my new dishwasher installed on Friday! They actually wanted to install it tomorrow, but Friday is much better for me.

I think I’m going to stop hand washing dishes so I have some to put in there on Friday.

And look at this distinguished gentleman.

He crosses his feet more and more as he gets older. It’s pretty cute.

As the evening winds down I’m drinking my second-to-last egg nog with bourbon for this year. It looks like the eggnog and bourbon will run out at the same time with my next indulgence. I’ve really enjoyed this little treat this year.

I’m supposed to play pickleball in the morning but it doesn’t look like the weather is going to cooperate. We have a pretty rainy ten days coming up.

We’ve had a very mild and relatively dry winter so far. Fingers crossed we get the water we need so we’re not on fire this summer.

During my lunch break today I stepped into my sewing room and pulled some scrap strips and put them into sets that I would sew later in the evening. It was a good plan because once I hit my sewing room after work I just flew!

I sewed four strip sets and got them all pressed, trimmed and cut into 3.5 inch sections.

I ended up with 16 sections. That’s the same as the number of completed blocks.

And, hey… some of them are wonky and that’s ok! This is free form piecing baby!!! There are no rules here!

Once I had this all done I decided to add the side strips to each section. I had all the sets put together with their trim and stacked up next to my sewing machine. I sat down at the and cranked through them in no time.

Here’s a lovely stack of pressed center sections, ready to be trimmed.

Next I trimmed the side strips on all 16 blocks to 1 inch width. If I make them a little wider than I need, I can trim them precisely after pressing and they look much nicer!

Here’s all 16 center pieces up on my design wall with the finished blocks. All I have to do now is add the black and white triangles and then square up the blocks.

I still need to cut the squares for the triangles. I’ve only been cutting a few at a time. I guess I should just dig in and cut a bunch while I’m cutting!

Once I get the squares cut, these will finish up really fast.

I’m still trying to decide how big this quilt will be. I’m thinking it will either be 8 x 10 blocks, or 7 x 9 blocks. I just have to decide whether or not it needs to be symmetrical. Either way, I’m close to having half the blocks I’ll need completed.

Here’s a closer look.

and an even closer look…

I think my scrap pile is actually bigger than when I started on this two days ago!!!

My foot was feeling so good today that I took the boys out for a 2.5 mile walk in the afternoon. I need to remember to take a photo of them on our next walk!